Dave Grohl Says He Was "Scared" to Write About Kurt Cobain's Death

"I revealed some things in that story that I've never told my closest friends. I was scared to write it"

BY Kaelen BellPublished Oct 22, 2021

Dave Grohl said that he was "scared" to write about Kurt Cobain's death in a new interview about his recently released memoir The Storyteller

The book, which arrived earlier this month, details Grohl's life as a musician, and features a chapter dedicated to discussing Cobain's passing. 

In an interview for Amanpour and Company, Grohl said that he put off writing the chapter until the end of the writing process, citing a fear of confronting his feelings about the loss of his friend and bandmate. 

Grohl said:

I was scared to write it. It's one thing to write about getting stitches when you're 12 years old or it's one thing to write about taking your kids to the daddy-daughter dance, it's another thing to write about something that you've barely spoken about with people close to you. I mean, I revealed some things in that story that I've never told my closest friends. I was scared to write it.

First of all, I knew what people wanted me to write. I think that people have a lot of unanswered questions – as do I. So I decided to write in a much broader emotional sense – the process of loss or grief and mourning, and how that's determined and how it differs from person to person. Yeah, it was a tough one to write.


When asked to describe what was so special about Cobain's songwriting, Grohl offered, "I think that his simplicity, and the beautiful, direct language in his lyrics which I would consider poetry, his specific lens, his perspective on life: he was very open to writing about his own pain, which I think millions of people could relate to and connect with... it was just him."

Check out the footage of Grohl's interview with Amanpour and Company below. 

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